


Jessica's Great Idea

by templemarker



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-12
Updated: 2015-02-12
Packaged: 2018-03-12 01:11:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3338486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/templemarker/pseuds/templemarker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Please rate this interaction from "1" to "BFFs."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jessica's Great Idea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lise](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lise/gifts).



> Happy Galentine's Day, Lise! 
> 
> This sort of is a smushed together timeline from Black Widow #1-5 and prior to Hawkeye #9. But this is 616, so timelines mean nothing! Nothing! Muahahahaha!
> 
> By which I mean you don't need the books to read this. Other than knowing that Jessica has some social awkwardness issues and Natasha mostly keeps to herself, you're golden.
> 
> My grateful thanks to Perpetual Motion and thewordbutler for exemplary beta.

Natasha's apartment was supposed to be temporary. All of her apartments were, from the safe houses in other countries to the cover she had established out in White Plains. They were never home; she couldn't afford to settle, knowing there would ever be a threat waiting to destroy something she'd let herself build. 

The cat was definitely a mistake, she thought ruefully when cleaning its litter box while it looked on imperiously. 

No one was supposed to know where this apartment was, not even SHIELD. She kept it far off the radar. Which made it surprising when Jessica Drew showed up one night with pizza, a bottle of wine, and fancy ice cream all perfectly yet somehow precariously balanced on one hand. 

Natasha clicked the safety on her pistol and shut the door to undo the two chain locks. At her arched eyebrow, Jessica just shrugged and said, "You don't want to be easy to find, stop smelling human." She rolled her eyes when Natasha paused to consider how one might go about it, pushing her way through the door. 

"You don't even have a tv, do you?" Jessica said, putting the food on the counter. 

"Who needs a tv when you've got a tablet?" Natasha replied, rolling out the tension from her body and trying out a smile on her face. It didn't feel that fake. 

"Oh yeah, I'll take a tiny screen four feet away against a 64" super-hi-def behemoth any day," Jessica said sarcastically, opening drawers to try and find a bottle opener. 

Natasha took the bottle and, with the help of a well-hidden tool, scratched a neat circumference around the bottle and slapped off the glass with the cork inside. When Jess looked at her, eyebrow raised--"Really?"--Natasha smirked and said, "I only have one wine glass. Pick a coffee mug you prefer."

They settled on Natasha's Thriftway couch and ate while fending off the cat. 

"What's the excuse this time?" Natasha asked, biting through the crust of her first slice. "Something going on down at the Port Authority again, or did you break a nail?"

"Ooh, burn," Jess said mockingly. "Do I need a reason?"

Natasha tilted her head to the side. "If precedent holds, yes. I can't imagine I'm topping your list of people to hang out with. I never call, I don't write..."

"But you always show up," Jessica said, clearly a little nervous but no less pointed. "And that's pretty valuable. Maybe something even to be nurtured. In, like, a friendly manner. Like having pizza between girlfriends and watching shitty tv."

There was a pause of surprisingly comfortable silence before Natasha said, "Those are acceptable terms. With one caveat: I am never watching the Real Housewives of anywhere."

Jessica grinned lopsidedly and tipped her head in acknowledgement. "Caveat accepted. Welcome to female friendship."

They finished the pizza and started in on the wine over a discussion of all the terrible television they'd picked up here and there in their respective lines of work. It turned out that _Friends_ was dubbed as horribly in Tbilisi as it was in Tokyo. They definitely didn't talk about romantic anything, particularly not one blonde guy with a death wish and a fetish for purple they might have in common. It was easy, even if on Natasha's part there was some pretending of the "fake it til you make it" variety. The "making it" bit was still up in the air. Natasha's friends didn't always survive Natasha's work, even if they had powers in their favor. 

After watching a dozen Youtube clips that Jess pulled up ("I have a lot of time on my hands between investigations. Too much time.") and killing the ice cream, Natasha started to itch between her shoulderblades, and Jessica rolled her shoulders and snuck a glance at the door. 

"So on a scale of one to BFFs, how do you think this went?" Jessica joked, an anxious thread running through her voice. Powers sucked for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was that it made friends hard to make, and harder to keep. 

Natasha paused from cramming the pizza box into her trash bin. "Let's go with a generous 'potential friendship bracelet.'" She paused for a second. "We could do this again. In a couple of weeks. I'm going out of town for work, but I'll be back the Monday after next."

Jessica smiled wide as she shrugged into her coat. "Yes. Let's do that. I'll provide the wine if you order the take-out."

"Deal," Natasha said, and as she locked the three deadbolts and strung the two chains across the door, she thought, _That wasn't so bad._ Even if it meant she'd have to set up a fallback position closer in New York City than she preferred. And she definitely had to crack that whole "smelling of human" deal. She'd throw the idea at Tony and see what came of it. 

Two weeks later, her ribs were taped and there was a splint on her left ankle, but she got the door as gracefully as anyone could. 

Carol was peering at her through the crack in the door. "We brought two bottles of wine. And a chocolate pie."

"I didn't think Carol would want to come," Jessica said in a loud stage whisper somewhere behind Carol. "I didn't even invite her! I just said I was coming over to yours for takeout and Youtube and she said she'd pick me up at six!"

"It's faster if I just pick you up," Carol turned her head and argued. "You even said you didn't think we could get across Midtown as fast as we did."

Natasha quashed the urge to roll her eyes. She shut the door, undid the chains, and let Carol saunter in, both necks of the wine bottles casually tucked between the knuckles of her left hand. Jessica trailed after her, somewhere between sheepish and nervous, clutching a pie with entirely too much whipped cream on it. "Um," she said. "Girl's night in?"

"I'm going to have to burn this apartment complex to the ground," Natasha said gravely, and was rewarded with a grin from Jessica. 

"Not until we watch those clips from the Daily Show I told you about," Jessica said, spinning on her heel to place the pie on the table. Carol was using her telekinesis to pull the cork from the wine bottle, and when it was halfway out she tugged it the rest of the way free with her teeth. 

"I still only have coffee mugs," Natasha said, smirking at Carol's triumphant smile. "Do you want the one with the kitten and the ball of yarn, or the one announcing the 25th anniversary of Dick's Auto Palace?"

"Auto palace," Jessica said immediately. 

Carol took a sip straight from the bottle in defiance. 

"And no one else is coming, right?" Natasha asked warningly. 

"Nope," Jessica said, pressing her lips together.

"Oh, yeah, Bobbi might stop by," Carol said. "I saw her at the co-op. She has great taste in gluten free breads."

Natasha looked up at the ceiling mutely asking _why._ "Does anyone else know where my supposedly anonymous apartment is?"

"I think Darcy's in town with Jane," Carol said thoughtfully. "I texted, but I haven't heard back yet."

"I don't have enough coffee mugs," Natasha said in protest. 

"Oh look, you have SOLO cups!" Jessica said, head halfway into the cabinets. 

"I'm kicking everyone out if there's singing," Natasha warned. "No one is going to belt out 'Wind Beneath My Wings' no matter how drunk they are."

"Deal!" Carol said cheerfully, calling Darcy up. 

Natasha redid her ponytail and grabbed her phone while Jessica called in an order for Thai. Bobbi would kill her for having people over and not inviting her, despite the fact that Natasha had technically only tentatively invited Jessica. And, though Natasha was generally not interested in socializing when she wasn't working, Bobbi would know. Bobbi always knew. 

_Having people over. Don't die of shock. Bring at least a box of wine._

This definitely was moving past friendship bracelets into travelling pants territory.

**Author's Note:**

> "Jessica's Great Idea" is a riff off the Baby-sitter's Club #1, "Kristy’s Great Idea." Friends forever!


End file.
